REPORT: BARNET 1 TOWN 0

A John Akinde penalty was enough to give Barnet the victory as Town continued preparations for the new season in the pre-season encounter at the Hive.

As was the case at Shelburne on Saturday, Mick McCarthy changed the entire team at half-time, with both first and second half sides including a mixture of first-team and U21 players.

The hosts started the stronger, and it took Bialkowski’s left post to stop Elliott Johnson’s 25-yard deflected effort giving Barnet the advantage early on.

The Pole had to be alert soon after to deny Michael Nelson an opener as the defender headed goalwards from a Ryan Watson corner, but the 2015/16 Player of the Year was on hand to parry clear.

Town did begin to grow into the game towards the end of the opening 45, and Adam McDonnell almost found a way past Graham Stack after receiving a Teddy Bishop through ball, but the Barnet stopper got a strong hand to his shot, sending the sides in at the break level.

Neither side took control of the game in the opening stages of the second-half, and it took an error for the breakthrough to come. Tommy Smith’s loose back-pass allowed Akinde to nip in ahead of Dean Gerken who brought the towering forward down in the box, resulting in a penalty.

Akinde stepped up and slotted the stop-kick home himself, a goal which proved to be the difference as the Bees held out to win the game.